Sakurai Talks Smash Brothers Brawl

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The latest on the Wii update from the director's weekly journal.

By Anoop Gantayat

Masahiro Sakurai revealed first details on Super Smash Bros. Brawl months ago in his weekly column in Japan's Famitsu publication. While Smash Bros. content went quiet for a while, the latest entry, the first one following Nintendo's E3 debut, offers a few interesting comments on the game.

This weeks column was apparently written immediately after Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl unveiling conference, which Sakurai, the game's director, referred to as "the secret announcement meeting." He started off his discussion of the new title with the basics. "Dairantou Smash Bros. X is in development for the Wii. The game has yet to take basic form, but we were somehow able to make the announcement."

As you've probably guessed from Sakurai's comments, the game's Japanese name is Dairantou Smash Bros. X, with the "X" being used in place of our "Brawl." The "Dairantou" part of the title is in all the Japanese Smash Bros. games in place of our "Super," and means something to the effect of "Great Fight."

Sakurai wanted to make sure and give the new game a final name prior to its announcement, for marketing/promotional purposes. "From many different directions," he explained, "We settled on Smash Bros. X. The X gives the meaning of 'Cross,' or intersection." This idea, according to Sakurai, reflects the nature of the game, be it via the impossible character crossovers, the battle on a common battlefield, or facing off against an unknown person via Online play.

Smash Bros. is one of the few Wii games to maintain a standard control scheme. "I was given the task of creating Smash Bros.," explained Sakurai. "Of course, the topic becomes, how should we use the special remote controller? During the planning stages, we gave a lot of thought to this." In the end, Sakurai and his staff decided to not go too far with the controller, in particular avoiding being new just for the sake of being new, which Sakurai worried would make the game difficult to play.

Sakurai also made a few comments about what online play will bring to the title, and some of the problems of developing an online game. "To be honest, there are some annoying areas. While it's definite that the switch to online raises the possibilities for a game, there are lots of considerations, like manners, and level differences." He seems to have an overall favorable impression of online play, though, noting that, "It increases the opportunity to interact with players who are playing the same game."

Despite the title's use of a standard control scheme, Sakurai's journal offers kind words for the Wii. "I believe Wii is truly an appealing game machine. It begins to demonstrate solutions to many of the problems that face today's game industry."